Strangford has voted to leave, with 18,727 votes for Remain, and 23,383 votes for Leave.

Belfast East has voted to leave, with 20,728 for Remain, 21,918 vote for Leave.

The electorate in East Antrim firmly backed calls to pull out of Europe, with 22,929 votes for Leave compared with 18,616 votes for Remain.

Leave campaigners also enjoyed success in South Antrim, where 22,055 voters backed Brexit while 21,498 said they wanted to stay.

East Derry has voted to remain, by 21,098 to 19,455, while Upper Bann voted to leave, by 27,262 to 24,550.

South Down voted for remain, by 32,076 votes to 15,625, as did Mid-Ulster, by 25,612 votes to 16,799.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone has voted Remain, by 28,200 votes to 19,958. Newry and Armagh also voted to remain in the EU.

Electoral area

Northern Ireland is treated as one electoral area in the overall UK result, but the count was broken down across its 18 constituencies, with those separate outcomes added together for the regional result.

The verification of ballot papers started in eight regional count centres shortly after polls closed at 10pm.

The final regional result was be announced at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast by the chief electoral officer for Northern Ireland, Graham Shields.

There were about 320 electoral staff in the centre, including counters, count supervisors and count calculators.

After arriving at the Belfast centre, DUP MLA for Belfast South Christopher Stalford said: “If leave [vote] is over 30 per cent I will consider that as a victory.”

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said: “The signs in Northern Ireland is that Leave will do better than anyone expected even a few weeks ago.”

Ian Paisley Jnr also said he believes a Leave win would make the DUP more influential in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson said: “For us this was about staying in Ireland, as Ireland, staying as one, not having one part in Europe and the other part of it outside of Europe.”

Belfast South MP and former SDLP leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell also said he was hopeful of the Remain campaign winning and that he believes the UK must “throw itself into Europe full thrust”.

Campaign

Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and the Alliance Party campaigned for a Remain vote in the referendum campaign, while the DUP, Traditional Unionist Voice and Ukip were among those advocating a Brexit.

The future of the Irish Border was a key issue in the campaign, with claim and counter-claims on whether a UK exit would see a return to security and customs checkpoints.